Today was a long day! Started the day discussing about my research with Simon Davy. We talked through the different parts of my research - experiment on bioindicators of stressed corals, lab experiments and field experiments. Overall, Simon was pleased with the experimental design which I came up with, but as with any advisors, he also added in more items to challenge me...more work, more thinking, more researching!
After the meeting, I learned some specific lab techniques on Symbiodinium genotyping, qPCR and DGGE. Shaun Wilkinson is Simon's PhD student, and his focus is coral Symbiodinium molecular work. Thus, he would be the best candidate to go though with me on these techniques. After the sessions with Shaun, I started learning the diving PAM theory with Paul Fisher. He is Simon's Post-doc, and he is very good with using the diving PAM. I was fortunate to learn from him because he is just done with his Pst-doc, and leaving NZ next month! I caught him just in time! I am using the diving PAM as one of my bioindicators for stressed corals, so this session is very important. We only covered the theory today, and tomorrow we would be carrying out some practical exercises.
I did not get out of the lab until about 7pm. While it seemed normal in most universities, it is considered late for New Zealand students to stay this late in universities... I was hungry because I only had a bagel for the whole day. Thus, I went to Subway for a 6-inches sandwich, but I think I got cheated! I am sure it was DEFINITELY less than 6 inches! And the guy/ server/ cashier was in such a lousy mood as well. He was impatient, unclear about his words, and just plain rude!
Looking forward to tomorrow to learn the practical aspect of the diving PAM. Paul had also indicated that we can talk more about my research tomorrow or Friday when we have more time. So far it is a really good experience!
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